functionalist approach to education Flashcards
What are consensus theories?
Theories that believe that there is a general agreement. Each theory will attempt to explain the usefulness of a particular issue.
What are conflic theories?
Theories that believe particular social groups are exploited and oppressed - there is no agreement.
What are the foundation beliefs of functionalists in regards to society?
- Everything in society has a function.
- The main purpose of society is to ensure society shares a social consciousness.
- It is concerned with the link between the work force and institutions.
- Institutions are expected to act as an agency of socialisation.
- Education also creates social solidarity.
How did Durkheim view the school system?
Durkheim viewed school as a miniature society where children learn new norms and values that they can now apply in society.
Children also learn set rules and how to accept them and this is known as value consensus.
Summarise what is meant by specialist skills.
The production of most goods in modern industrial economies involves the cooperation of many different specialists.
Education teaches the necessary specialist skills that each individual needs to play their part in the complex division of labour.
What is the concept of social solidarity?
Individual members must feel themselves to be part of a single ‘body’ or community.
Without social solidarity, social life and cooperation would be impossible because each individual would pursue their own selfish desires.
How does the education system help to create social solidarity?
School and the education system transmit society’s culture from one generation to the next.
Define secondary socialisation.
Secondary socialisation takes place when a child learns the values, beliefs and attitudes of their culture through those outside of the family.
In modern society, schools are the main agency of secondary socialisation.
It reinforces primary socialisation in the form of supporting societies norms, values and expectations (education, religion, media, peers).
Define social cohesion.
Social cohesion refers to the strength of relationships and the sense of solidarity among members of a community.
The idea that education is trying to help people understand that everyone should have the same values, beliefs, behaviours, etc, as it creates an expectation of them.
What is meant by serving the needs of the economy?
The government identifies gaps in the economy and encourages people to fulfil them.
Therefore, the needs of the economy are being served as the government are able to fill thsoe jobs.
What is meant by social control?
The means by which society tries to ensure that its members behave as others expect them to.
Social control comes in the form of formal control (police, courts etc) and informal control (parents, teachers etc).
What is meant by facilitating social mobility?
It is the idea of moving people from one class to another. For example, working class to middle class.
Education should enable working class individuals to be able to get a job in the middle class sector.
Give three informal ways of inforcing behaviour?
- Family
- Friends
- Peers
Give three formal ways of inforcing behaviour?
- Police
- Courts
- Army
What is meritocracy?
A system where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed, rewards and status are achieved, not ascribed.
